Pakistan cricket faces new low because of one man, alleges Imran Khan

An embarrassing defeat at the hands of Bangladesh will playing on their minds as Pakistan look to square the series in the second and final Test, beginning at Rawalpindi on Friday, 30 August. The last few days had seen the former stars coming down heavily on their current form – with former prime minister Imran Khan weighing in a rare tirade.

The chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, who is now lodged in Adiala Jail, is not known to be very vocal about his country’s cricketing fortunes in recent times. However, the charismatic captain of their 1992 World Cup winning team and one of the greatest allrounders of the game took a sharp dig at the current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi, the current interior minister and his political rival.

“Cricket is loved and watched by the citizens of Pakistan, but even that has been destroyed by powerful quarters who added an unqualified official to the board to keep their control,” Imran said on his official X handle on Tuesday.

“Pakistan didn’t make it to the semis of the World Cup or the top eight in T20. We faced an embarrassing defeat against Bangladesh, a new low. Just two-and-a-half years ago, this team had defeated India by 10 wickets. What has changed that we lost to Bangladesh by 10 wickets? The blame lies with just one institution,” he added.

The political overtone is well defined when he says: ‘’Mohsin Naqvi owns property worth five million dollars under his wife’s name. He is involved in the wheat procurement scandal and was behind the most fraudulent election in our country. What are his qualification?...’’

 Naqvi, meanwhile, is also backing a backlash from other former players as former opening batter Ahmed Shehzad slammed him for his failure to improve the game.

“When you lost to India in the T20 World Cup 2024, to keep people quiet, you said that you would do surgery on Pakistan cricket. But you failed to do it. You lied to people just like others in the past. What did you think? That you would buy time? That after you beat Bangladesh in the Test series, people will go a little quiet, and then you will implement your changes, but that did not happen,” Shahzad said in a video on X.

 Naqvi has added several former players to the mentorship role to take Pakistan to new heights – Misbah-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik and Waqar Younis.

‘’We don’t have data or a player pool to improve the performance. The whole system was in a mess,” Shahzad added.